We had much to discuss and, after a long talk, we parted with the firm determination that, whatever happened, we would continue the war.
On the 27th General Botha returned to the Transvaal, and I to the Heilbron commando.

After a few days President Steyn came from the south of the Free State, in order to meet the Transvaal Government at Vrede.
After this meeting had taken place he went off to a camp of his own, for it was thought better that he should not remain with the commandos any longer.

I gave him fifty burghers, under the command of Commandant Davel, to serve as a bodyguard.
I had but just returned from my meeting with General Botha when a serious matter arose at Petrusburg, demanding my immediate presence there.

It was three hundred and sixty miles there and back, and the journey promised to be anything but a pleasure trip--far less a safe excursion--for me; but the country's interest requiring it, I started on the 8th of April, although much fatigued by my inroad into Cape Colony.
My staff succeeded in capturing an outpost of sixteen men on the railway line near Vredefort, the English losing one killed and two wounded.
I visited the commando at Vredefort, arranged everything at Petrusburg, and started on my return journey on the 17th.

I crossed the railway line between Smaldeel and Ventersburg Road Station, and after paying Commandant Hasebroek a short visit, I came back to the Heilbron commando.
Our tactics of dividing our commandos, and thus keeping the English busy in every part of the Free State, or, where they were too numerous for us, of refusing to allow them to give us battle, so enraged them that they no longer spared the farmhouses in the north and north-western districts.